Station-indicator



(N0 ModeL) W. JONES.

' STATION INDICATOR. S

No. 327,951. Patented Oct. 6,1885.

MEX

STA

WITNESSES WWW ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILEY JONES, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.

STATION-INDICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 327,951 dated October 6, 1885.

Application filed January 21, 1885. Serial No. 153,532.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILEY JONES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Norfolk, in the county of Norfolk and State of Virginia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Station-Indicators, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a partof this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front view of the indicator, showing portions of the box broken away at its lower corners. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same in line 00 x of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing the brakes applied to the winding-rollers.

My invention relates to a mechanical device to be used First. As a revolving calendar exhibiting a Scripture text for every day in the year, and that may be suspended for use and ornament on the walls of the house, the Sunday-school, or the counting-room. By turning the handle the text, in large letters, is exposed to sight, so as to be easily read from a distant part of the room without exposing the reading-matter to defaccment by dust or fly-specks.

Second. As an indicator or signal to be put in a railroad-car or steamboat, to show passengers distinctly and in ample time beforehand what is the next station or the next landing at which the cars or boat will stop. Passengers are often subjected to much annoyance, and even danger, in leaving their seats and looking about the train or boat for some one to inform them whether the next station or landing is the one at which they are desiring to get off. This indicator, being put up in a conspicuous place in the car or boat, enables them to see at a glance without further trouble, and so have themselves and baggage ready before they get there. On leaving a station or landing some hand or saloon-servant is to turn the crank of the indicator (a moments work) until the name of the next station or landing is brought to view, and let it remain so until that station or landing is reached. Afterward turn it to the next name, and so on. When the name is merely called out by the employ, it frequently happens to be heard indistinctly or not at all; but with the additional aid of this indicator much trouble is saved.

(No model.)

Third. As a mercantile bulletin, calling attention successively to some leading article which a merchant has just received and offers for sale. Merchants are often at considerable expense and trouble to get neat and attractive show-cards for their wares, and such cards, being exposed to dust, flies, and handling, are soon defaced and have to be thrown away; but in this device the advertising -surface may be kept bright and fresh a great while, and ready at any time without having to look for pasteboard and marking-pot, and having to exhibit in a scrawling hand the name of the commodity to which the merchant wishes to call attention.

The general principle of construction employed by me consists of a flexible band of paper or muslin bearing the desired inscription and connected at its ends to two winding rollers, and guided over two other rollers as it passes from one winding-roller to the other in close proximity to a glass panel or door in a case within which the flexible strip and rollers are detachably contained. Similar devices have heretofore been used, and in connection with the winding-rollers a friction-brake has been employed to keep the rollers from jolting and accidentally turning out of position.

My invention consists, mainly, in the peculiar construction and arrangement of the friction-brake,whereby thrust on the bearings of the rollers and unequal wear are avoided, and also in the peculiar construction and arrangement of the bearings for the rollers, whereby the mechanism can be readily taken out of the case.

In the drawings, A represents the containing-case,which has at the front a hinged glass door, B.

O O are the two winding-rollers, to which are attached the ends of the flexible strip D, bearing the inscriptions, which strip is held up to the front, and in a constant and uniform line of travel in close proximity to the glass front, by the guide-rollers E E. These rollers O G and E E are journaled at one end in bearings formed in the end of the case,which bearings are re-enforced by a metal plate, F, to prevent wear, and at which end the squared shafts of the rollers G 0 project through the case to admit of the application of a crank handle or key, G, by which they are turned.

At the other end the rollers are journaled in a detachable slide, F, likewise re-enforced by a metal face-plate, F also removable, which slide and plate fit the cross-section of the case, and each is held in place by the hinged glass door abutting against its edge, or by a small screw on the inside, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The object of this slide F is to permit it (with one end of the rollers) to be slid out whenever it is desired to remove the rollers from the case to change the flexible strip or repair the machinery.

F is a slot in plate F", exposing a thumbnotch in slide F, by which said slide may be withdrawn.

At one end of each of the winding-rollers O 0 there is attached a grooved pulley, H and H, and grasping each of these and resting in its groove is a friction-brake, consisting of two sections, I I, which connects the two grooved pulleys of the winding'rollers and bears upon opposite sides of each of the said pulleys. The two sections I and I have curves at their ends, that lap around the grooved pulleys, and the two sections reciprocally hold each other to proper frictional contact with the pulleys, as follows: The sections are made of elastic rods, one of which, I, is bent at its middle into an eye, a, through which the other section extends, and which forms a fulcrum-point about which the ends spring as they clamp the opposite sides of the grooved pulleys.

This construction of brake, it will be seen, avoids any thrust upon the bearings of the winding-rollers, and consequently prevents all looseness at the bearings due to unequal wear,

which unequal wear, if produced, would destroy the necessary equidistance of the bearings and the parallelism of the four rollers, and thereby destroy the plumb and smooth running of the flexible strip D.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with the winding-rollers and the flexible strip carried by the same, of a friction-brake forming and containing its own fulcrum point and arranged to bear equally upon opposite sides of the rollers, as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination, with the winding-rollers having grooved pulleys on their ends and the flexible'strip carried by the same, of a friction-brake composed of section I, with an eye in its middle and having curved ends, and the section I, extended through the eye of section I and having curved ends, and arranged upon the opposite side of pulleys from the first section, as shown and described.

3. The combination, with the containingcase having a glazed door, B, the winding-rollers O O, the guide-rollers E E, and the flexible strip D, of the removable j ournal-slide F, fitting the cross-section of the case and carrying the journals of one end of the rollers, and held in place, substantially as shown and described.

vVILEY JONES. 

